R Street frustrated by White House rejection of Keystone XL pipeline
WASHINGTON (Nov. 6, 2015) – The R Street Institute was disappointed by today’s decision from President Barack Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would have created thousands of jobs and pumped billions of dollars into the U.S. economy.
“This decision is yet another in a long line of anti-business rulings from this administration, often at the cost of citizens,” said Catrina Rorke, energy policy director at R Street. “We’ve been documenting for years what this project would bring to the economy, but we also can’t forget what killing it will cost us.”
Over the past seven years, while federal officials debated the pipeline, oil transport by trucking and rail that otherwise could have been handled by the pipeline have contributed 8.8 million additional tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of adding 1.8 million passenger vehicles to the road.
“Every year that we rely on rail instead of pipeline infrastructure to carry this oil results in more emissions, more spills and more fatal accidents,” Rorke said. “With the pipeline project now effectively killed, that number will continue to compound.”
The pipeline would have offered U.S. refineries access to a secure source of North American oil. The State Department’s own estimates show it would have created 42,000 jobs and contributed roughly $3.4 billion to the U.S. economy, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the likelihood of transport-related oil spills.
“This administration has once again sent a signal that companies looking to invest in American infrastructure should do so very warily,” said Rorke. “You could spend millions of dollars to advance a crucial infrastructure project, prove its benefits, follow the exhausting multiyear regulatory process and still be left with nothing.”
